Engineering of a Complex Organ; Progress Toward Development of a Tissue-engineered Lung

The engineering of complex organ structures such as the lungs is difficult due to a variety of factors not present in simple organ structures like the skin.  

A large number of different cell types such as endothelial cells, Clara cells, smooth muscle cells, and specialized pneumocytes  found in the lungs increase the organ’s complexity and present difficulties as to how to these cells should be acquired.  Stem cells have proven to be a useful cell source due to their multipotency, however problems arise as there are growth factor requirements that must be met in order to insure differentiation. 

Many factors must be considered when constructing a support scaffold.  The scaffold must remain long enough to provide framework necessary for cell growth and tissue development while retaining optimal elasticity.  Porosity of the scaffold is necessary.  Nutrient transport and cell-to-cell signaling cannot be inhibited if the engineered lung is to be effective.

To achieve production of a fully functional lung engineers are currently trying to develop the individual components of the lungs to gain the knowledge necessary to construct the entire organ structure.  Advances in these individual components have been made, but a better understanding of lung regeneration as a whole is needed before a final product can be created.

I found this article particularly entertaining, because it presented many of the problems being faced by engineers today who are trying to construct complex organs.  Disease will be rendered trivial as the engineering of controlled organ systems is realized.  There are many articles addressing the building of organ structures, but the lungs in particular interest me because many of my best friends and fraternity brothers are smokers and I figure at some point I’ll have to whip them up a fresh pair of lungs if they’re to stick around.

Article found at: http://pats.atsjournals.org/content/5/6/723.full